Police & Crime Commissioner election: Why you should have your say

Comment by David Hudson

It’s election year.

“You’re joking, not another one!” That was Brenda from Bristol’s famous exclamation back in 2017, and come the end of 2024 you may well be saying the same.

As a general election looms in the Autumn (maybe) there’s the small matter of other trips to your local polling station this spring.

On May 2, Hull City Council has about a third of its councillors up for re-election in 19 of the 21 council wards, and you can also cast a vote for your Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), a role created back in 2012 by the then coalition government to replace the old police authority committees.

But what does a PCC do, and why should you care? 

For some years now there’s been a move to devolve some powers and accountability away from London and into the regions. Not a bad thing, right? Surely it’s better to have more control locally that leaving it to the bureaucrats down south, many of whom will have never ventured north of Watford without getting a nosebleed?

We now have mayors in many of our big metropolitan areas such as West Yorkshire, Manchester and soon to be South Yorkshire, and of course, there’s the devolution proposal for Hull and the East Riding which is being worked on as we speak.

Twelve years ago the coalition decided to do the same thing with the governance of policing and shift the responsibility to elected PCCs. But it’s a role few people fully understand, so let’s break down the title.  

First up, they don’t run the police, that’s the Chief Constable’s job. This confuses many, as the job title has ‘Police’ and ‘Commissioner’ in it, which evokes images of Batman’s Commissioner Gordon in Gotham City, and in the country’s biggest police force, the Met in London, the Commissioner is a police officer. Maybe a re-think of the job title is in order.

PCCs are elected to be the public’s representative on policing, to hold the Chief Constable to account for the force’s performance, to consult with the public on what’s important to them and turn those into priorities in a plan that the Chief Constable must take note of. If the force is failing, the PCC has the power to replace the Chief Constable.

Since 2016 Humberside Police have risen from being one of the worst-rated in the country to the top, voted Police Service of the Year in 2023 and held up as a beacon of achievement among police forces nationwide. It’s still not perfect – no police force is – but that’s some going.

Our police officers and staff do an often thankless job in difficult circumstances and the overwhelming majority are a credit to the public they serve, but as we’ve seen elsewhere with shocking headlines and scandals, there needs to be some governance and oversight which PCCs provide. Policing; however, is only part of their job.

The ‘and Crime’ bit of the job title refers to community safety – managing budgets to fund initiatives which will cut crime and improve safety for everyone.

It could be providing pots of money for community groups to bid into for equipment such as CCTV, security fencing or youth programmes to give kids something positive to do. PCCs fund local partnerships which bring other agencies together to find ways to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, or introduce programmes into schools to raise awareness of serious issues such as sexual and criminal exploitation, helping young people spot the signs of online grooming or gangs who trap them into dealing or carrying drugs through coercion and threats.

Finally, the ‘Commissioner’ bit of the role, far from being that guy who shines the bat signal into the sky, refers to all your local services, other than the police, who support victims of crime and help their rehabilitation and recovery, whether you’ve had you’re house burgled or been subjected to a serious assault or even rape. The service you receive will probably have been commissioned by the PCC.

Your Police and Crime Commissioner has an important role in making your community safer and consequently, reducing the number of victims of crime. It’s your police, your voice – make it heard.

• This year’s Police and Crime Commissioner election candidate information will be published on April 9 at www.choosemypcc.org.uk. Voting takes place on Thursday, May 2.